Call for creative verve

Brian Rosen presides over a multimillion-dollar budget for Australian film. He has a warning for the industry, writes Lawrie Zion.

'Why can't we make films like Lost in Translation? It only cost $3½ million."

In a quiet corner of a swish Melbourne hotel bar, Brian Rosen is in conversational mode, but his question is more pointed than idle bar chatter.

Rosen, more perhaps than any other Australian, is in a position to say what does or doesn't get made by our filmmakers. As executive director of the Film Finance Corporation, he holds one of the most exalted and powerful positions in the Australian screen industry.

Last year, more than $67 million was invested in 53 screen projects, creating a production slate worth $148.6 million.

A year into Rosen's tenure, however, the Australian film industry is still in the doldrums, and that's putting it nicely - the recent promising opening weekend box-office takings of Strange Bedfellows notwithstanding.

To his credit, the Irish-born Rosen isn't trying to dodge the issue. Asked if he thought he might have been harsh when he said last year that he was "hard-pressed to find distinction" among the current crop of Australian features, Rosen is unapologetic.

"I don't think I've been harsh," he says. "The box office has borne out what I've said, and yes, I think you've got to turn round and say the baby's not well every now and again. I saw my job when I came in was to shine a blowtorch to create debate. I'm not saying I have all the answers but what I want the industry to do is engage with it."

And engaged Rosen has been as he heads around the country talking to those in the industry about the corporation's plan to make creative merit one of its funding hoops.

Gone are the days when the agency was the last investor on board and simply rubber-stamped other people's endorsements. From now on, it will have its own project assessors. They will become part of the decision-making loop when it comes to choosing new projects.

If we don't make the most of opportunities that are there, we'll be back where we were in the early '70s.

It might not sound like a radical idea, but under its pervious rules, the corporation's funding decisions were made according to market benchmarks, such as distribution and sales deals, and not on creative merit.

"It's all about creating an environment to make the best film possible," Rosen asserts, insisting that assessing a feature goes well beyond simply evaluating its screenplay.

"I think many things come into play when you're doing a film. A director brings a lot into the film. You can have a script, but the director's vision is so important to what happens.

"Then there's the concept - it's no good having a great script if the concept is limited. Where is the audience, who's the audience? Are we just making it for Australia? If so, fine, but if it's not for an international audience, let's just make it for $3 million, not $10 million."

But there's still a long way to go before everyone will be ready to embrace Rosen's approach. He spent 10 years as a producer in the United States, but is surprised at how little Australian filmmaking changed in that time.

"You know what I love about Hollywood?" he says. "It's the energy level that's there. They might be trying to f--- you, but there's a tremendous energy because you're trying to get something happening.

"When I came back, it felt like everyone had rolled over and died."

In other words, he says, the industry had developed a culture where the art of ticking boxes was more important than fundamental creative instincts.

"Eventually you end up with filmmakers thinking, 'Well, if I want to get this made, this is the kind of thing I have to do', rather than thinking, this is a great story that I want to tell and I'll kill to tell it."

And - Rosen says - if the situation doesn't turn around quickly, the industry will regress. "Government money will start to peter out and we'll have lost our moment in the sun," he says.

"I don't think Australia's film culture is dying by any stretch of the imagination. But, if we don't make the most of the opportunities that are there at the moment, the tap will be slowly turned off, and, in 10 years' time, we'll be back to where we were in the early '70s where four or five films get made a year and that's it."

But Rosen insists that he's essentially optimistic. "We have great infrastructure in our training and development agencies - we actually have very good writers. We just need to unleash them," he says.

"The opportunity is amazing in Australia. There's a lot of talent and a lot of money available, and the thing is to harness that for a common goal."